8/25/14

(Labor Day, still a week away, is not the end of warm days nor the actual beginning of fall. Still, in American culture, so many things begin to change as August ends and school begins... Following today's Morning Offering you'll find audio for Nicole Nordeman's beautiful song, "Every Season," sung by Ken Copeland.)

Good morning, good God!

As the sun sets a little sooner every evening,
Labor Day's horizon eclipsing these august days,
I'm wondering, Lord:
why must good times come to an end?

Good times come too seldom, or so it often seems,
and when they do they're here
- and then they're much too quickly gone...

And as wonderful as memories are,
they are, well, memories...

Why, Lord, must good times, good days
come to an end?
Why are memories not enough?
Why is the promise of fall's leaf-filtered beauty
not enough today to help me let go
summer’s warmth and pace and peace?

Of seasons there are four, they say,
but I'm sure I know a hundred seasons more,
just in my life alone:
seasons of peace, seasons of pain;
seasons of sadness, seasons of gain;
seasons of sunlight, seasons of rain;
seasons of comfort, seasons of strain;
seasons of planting, seasons of grain;
seasons of waiting for a season to come
to break the seasons’ chain…

So many seasons, Lord…

And letting go of summer is not easy…

I should be grateful for autumn:
your gentle preparation
of everyone and everything
for the dying that winter will surely bring…

Still, letting go of summer is not easy...

You know the seasons better than I, Lord,
and no season changes
around me or within me
but that you first know
how those changes
will change me...

Be with me, Lord,
in all the seasons of my life
and be with me in between the seasons,
when moving from one to the next
is itself a season to bear…

Every evening sky, an invitationTo trace the patterned starsAnd early in July, a celebrationFor freedom that is oursAnd I notice YouIn children’s gamesIn those who watch them from the shadeEvery drop of sun is full of fun and wonderYou are summer...And even when the trees have just surrenderedTo the harvest timeForfeiting their leaves in late SeptemberAnd sending us insideStill I notice You when change beginsAnd I am braced for colder windsI will offer thanks for what has been and what's to comeYou are autumn...And everything in time and under heavenFinally falls asleepWrapped in blankets white, all creationShivers underneathAnd still I notice youWhen branches crackAnd in my breath on frosted glassEven now in death,You open doors for life to enterYou are winter...And everything that’s new has bravely surfacedTeaching us to breatheWhat was frozen through is newly purposedTurning all things greenSo it is with YouAnd how You make me newWith every season’s changeAnd so it will beAs You are re-creating meSummer, autumn, winter, spring...

Are you thinking about becoming a Catholic?

The best place to start is always one of your local Catholic churches. Drop in some Sunday and see what's going on. Then you might speak to the pastor or someone on the parish staff about how they can help you and respond to your questions.